Pgh_Scoob

Awesome! This is great, you guys just answered just about every question I had. I'm going to pick up all of my pats today and hopefully will be able to get my wagon some well deserved ground clearance on Sunday! A couple questions for gwilson87: What did you do about your alignment? Did you go with the rear camber bolts? Or since you used the stock top hats they weren't needed and how did you mount you top hats to the struts? Are you still using your sway bars? Or did you get rid of them, if so how bad is the handling? Thanks again for any information, Greg

Hey, So I have been contemplating lifting my 97 obs fr quite some time and I finally have the opportunity to do so, but my main question is what exactly is needed? I am under the assumption that certain forester years (02-04) can be a direct fit but you need to swap out the rear mounting plates? Am I correct in my thinking or completely wrong. Another way of going about it from what I can gather is using outback struts and springs with the obs mounting plates and the outback trailing arm... if that is correct what year outback would I need to look for? Thanks for any help and advice, I did look up some lift threads and the nicest one the guy was using 07 forester struts but have new mounting plates for the rear, but was dealing with rear camber and toe issues. Is this a common problem when you lift the obs? Thanks Again, Greg

Oh man no way. I ripped mine out, it took a little bit of effort from a cut off wheel and a pry bar. I am dealing with it now though pittsburgh heat wave is killer. I had to recharge my a/c just to deal with the heat but I would rather do that then buy a new exhaust. IMOP Greg

The last two replies were dead on. Nice smooth exhaust as your cruising and as soon as you let off the gas and have the slight drop in pressure allows a bunch of vibrations to travel. Its crazy at what these heat shields can sound like. I just recently finished a battle with my car and its constant rattling. At one point I could have sworn I spun a main bearing in my engine mainly because I heard a car which had spun a main bearing a few days before and all it was, was a really high pitched "squeak" you could say. Long story short it was my heat shield heading towards my muffle. Not more than a week later I had an orchestra of rattling coming from under my car. I went on a mission to quiet my car down. When all was said and done 5 of the 6 (IIRC) heat shields had to go just along the headers. One is still sticking around and Im just waiting for the day when he has to go. Sorry for the rant, I just hate those suckers and they stressed me out before I realized it was the heat shields. Hope everything works out, Greg

It is! I guess I might be runner up. the guy said that there was one person with the highest offer. I hope you dont get it. No offense, but I REALLY want that car. Its exactly what I have been looking for and probably exactly what your looking for. If things dont work out let me know so I can try and scoop it up. Thanks, Greg

I agree with 91loyale. It is most likely your wheel bearing, but your tie rods or ball joints could be bad as well. I just replaced my wheel bearing about 3 weeks ago. I could grab my wheel and just flop it around. I had a terrible wander while driving also. I replaced it with a junk yard hub assembly which included the lower ball joint but not the tie rod. I still have a little bit of play but thats because of my tie rods being worn but the wheel bearing is doing great. Greg

I was thinking it was not that big of a deal but just wanted to know. Thanks for everything and I will keep you posted if this actually works out. I really hope it does! Greg

Hey great thanks, Yeah the guy says that someone else has dibbs as of now but it comes free I am definitely trying to get it, my wagon has way to much rust and its only getting worse. As for the engine issue. The guys say that it overheated and caused the head gasket to blow. I dont think that hes that interested in finding out whats wrong with it because it has 200k+ miles on it. I just have a rusted out wagon which only has 97k on it. Runs fantastic but is starting to worry me with the rust. Thanks for all the help. Also does it make a difference that my car does not have a egr on it. Is that something that was put on in 98? If so would I just swap the intake from the 98 on to the 97 engine? Thanks again.

Hey, I was just wondering if anyone knew how interchangeable the engine are from 97 to 98. I am looking at getting a 98 impreza coupe 2.2l 5 speed that needs a new engine. I have a 97 impreza outback sport 2.2l 5 speed but am not sure if it will just drop right in. I know that subaru made changes to the 2.2 from 97-98 and if my thinking is correct they also made changes from 98-01. Im not entirely sure of what changes were made to the engine but I know there were some made. If anyone has any input to whether this would be a direct swap or not I would really appreciate it. Thanks, Greg

Any Updates????

Oh no, its nothing like that. Where I go swimming its a lot of bigger rocks. I can only go so far before I get nervous of puncturing my tire. The tires I had on my car were regular all season tires but mainly meant for street use. I dont know if I was actually endangering my tires but was always nervous to try and test their limit. So I figured I would try and get a little bit beefier tread and possibly a few inches of ground clearance so that I could get further with out worrying about puncturing my tire. Im not looking at doing real aggressive off roading just trying to get a little further into the woods with out breaking stuff. At least thats what Im gong for. Thanks, Greg

hey I was wondering if anyone knew of a decent set of tires to go with for my car. I am in need of a new set and I plan on doing a suspension lift, possibly using blocks as well. I am only looking at trying to get about 1.5-2" maybe 2.5" of lift at most. Im just not sure which tire I should go with. I would like to go off roading but nothing really serious. I just know of a couple of places where I go swimming that is a pain to get to if you dont want your tires getting eat'n up. I was looking at the General Grabbers 225/60/15 I think. And my understanding is that those could work but I would need to do a little trimming to the inner wheel wells. Which I have no problem doing but I dont have the money to get the lift done and really need to get new tires. So my dilemma is would the General Grabbers work for the time being with out a lift? Or do I need to look at getting some tires that would fit for now? Any help is greatly appreciated. Greg

Well thank you for all your help. I got a chance to look at my car today and realized that I has the front spring on the wrong hole. I did need to pull it to the round hole that the rear spring uses too. I had my adjusted so spread out that my drum wouldnt even try to go around. After getting that all straightened out I had help with finishing up my front hub assembly, which went pretty smoothly. But when I went to park my car I hear something rubbing against the drum. I think it is the backing plate that got bent somewhere while dealing with the shoes. tomorrow I'll get to see whats going on with that, plus now my ABS light is on. A friend of mine noticed that the front left reluctor looked to have a crack in it, so one more thing to look into. Greg

yeah thats how I have it set up now. It was originally in the two oblong holes with alot of slack. I the spring into the round hole closest to the pad like in the picture. I didint realize that tip of the spring pointing out in the first picture. After I go the spring in place I had to spin out the adjuster to help get rid of some of the slack. Now all I need to do is get everything adjusted and put back together. Hope I have it right. Thanks for all the help. Greg

Hey thanks I guess I was being kinda lazy. I looked around and now my main concern is the upper shoe return spring. Where my friend had it in place it barely stayed there and fell out when I touch the drum. My instructor said to stretch the spring on to another hole that was a little farther away from the hole where my friend had put it. I just dont think that its in the right spot. If you happen to come across any close ups of that I would really appreciate it. I did download a pdf for the brake shoes disassemble and reassemble but there are no clear images showing what holes to put the upper shoe return springs in. Thanks again, Greg

Hey I was wondering if anyone happened to have a picture of a impreza drum put together. A friend of mine took it apart and said that the one side was done and then she started on the other side. I finally got around to trying to finish up the other side and was looking at the complete side to follow the springs. That I noticed that one spring was just sitting there in the drum. I think I have it all back together but would like to make sure. Thanks, Greg

Yes the dampers are old the car has 95k on it. It has had close to 6 owners I think so trying to find out what work has been performed is a pita. I find out by what does go wrong. I had my suspensions about the suspension but thought that I would be alright for a little bit longer. I have also developed a deep rumble that I finally notice while driving, it sounds a lot like when my wheel bearing went in my 98 wagon. Greg

Yea I need to get another pair of jack stands, the ones I had gotten were to tall for my jack No I can not hear any squeaking while sitting still. I think that its my brake pads getting bad. It kinda sucks I got my car inspected a little while back where a friend of mine worked. I was expecting things needing some attention but it went through with no problem. So I dont know how hard he looked while inspecting it. It kinda sucks if he did just skim through it and wrote it off as a pass. And why I think its my brake pads is because the guy I took my car to last year to get inspected said that the rear drums were getting kinda low and would most likely need replaced next inspection and now the squealing is becoming intermittent while I'm driving straight down the road.

thanks for the replies. Yea I do need new tires and im considering doing the legacy outback suspension for a little lift and getting a little more aggressive tire. As for getting my car looked at I go to school as an automotive technician so its just a matter of getting my car into the shop. for now we are in theory until next week so there is no shop work which sucks because I have this problem Oh and for for the ball joints being bad I dont think it is, I had to replace the left front lower ball joint when I got my lower control arm replaced, the threads stripped off while the guy was unbolting it. I had then take a look at all of my ball joints and the instructor said everything is good. That was a little over a month ago so in that time one of the other ball joints could have failed. My car definitely needs an alignment the steering wheel is cocked to the left a bit. But it has been like that for some time, but I guessing that this problem could be because of putting off getting my car aligned. I took a look yesterday with my car on drive up stands took look around at the front suspension and steering. Everything looked ok, rusty but nothing really popped out at me. I need to lift my tires and try to wiggle then around but the floor jack I have is broken and I dont trust trying crawl under my car with the jack that came with the car. The wheel bearing could be the issue but on my old outback sport when the wheel bearing went I just noticed a deep rumble you could say but no drive ability problems. One last thing I have noticed a high pitch squeal when I am making turns. I notice it when I'm driving in the city but not on the highway. Not like you would be able to hear it anyway. Thanks Again Greg

heicoil has worked fine for me. Had that happen just a few months ago, like stated before when drilling just be cautious and drill slow until you get it started. Greg

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone might have a idea about what my car is doing. It feels as if the car is swerving or being pulled from one side to the other. This just developed today when I was driving to school and just had to keep correcting the steering wheel. My car does need an alignment and my tires are starting to get a little worn but it seems like I would have had this problem a while ago instead of it starting now. I think that my suspension is in need of some attention but I dont think that suspension could do this. For a little more detail on my problem. I noticed that it gets worse at higher speeds 55-65 was a little nervous at points driving back from school You can feel it in city driving but it not that severe. I had a really bad rumble in my car a few weeks ago which would only happen when I hit 55-65 again. I re-balanced my tires and it made no change a first but now it seems a little more intermittent. I dont know if this helps or not but figured I would see if there is any relationship. I havent had a chance to get my car on to a lift and check out my suspension, but was going to try and jack up my car and look around today. I was just wondering what things I should look out for that would tie in my complaint. If you have any ideas I would really appreciate it. I know this is a vague description but for right now this seems to be the best description I can think of. Thanks, Greg

I LOVE IT!!! I am planning on doing the same thing with my 97 obs. I was checking on here to try and get a little more info and this is exactly what I was looking for. Your car looks great and I cant wait until you get some big aggressive tires on it. As far as the rear mount tire. Have you ever heard of the impreza gravel express? It was an asian based model only, but it came with a factory brush guard on the front and a rear mounted tire. You can look up those images and try to see what they did. Cant wait to see more, Greg

Hey, Thanks bunch. I really appreciate your input. Greg

From my understanding the main engine change for the intake take was going from map sensors to maf sensors which completely changed the computer readings with air entering the engine. This changed in early 96 and on. So you have to get a phase one with the map sensor. Hope this helps Greg

Hey, I was just wondering how difficult it would be to do a 5 speed swap. What I am looking at is a 97 impreza 2 door that is an automatic. I would be swapping the transmission from my 97 impreza outback sport. I was talking with my brother and he had mentioned about differential differences. I dont know the exact specs but will do my homework if needed. Jut figured I would try and get an idea of what to expect if I try and do this. Or how much it would cost to have done. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks, Greg